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Tuesday, 19 February 2013

Our four
eldest children do gymnastics. So they have to wear a gymnastics leotard; an item
that is not easily purchased around here.

As Tahir
imported perfect leotard fabric I decided to make their gymnastics outfit
myself.

I will not disclose
the results just yet, the leotard pictures are for later this week...

First I
present you the gymnastics bag that goes with it.

A cute little
bag for our ‘star’ gymnasts. Just the right size to store two small bottles of
water and a snack for during the break.

I prefer a
round gymnastics bag instead of a flat one; besides following the guidelines of
THE book it was very easy to make. We chose to make the version with the pocket
on the inside, to tuck money aside.

This
macho bronze fellow (A Askalany) could wrap it around its neck before the kids got hold of
it.

The
beautiful blue fabric (Melody Sketch – Nani Iro) was bought at Mondaysmilk, an
online fabric shop with a superefficient and friendly service.

The
website noted that the fabric is DOUBLE GAUZED, I did not notice this mention
when I ordered the fabric and anyway I would not have known what it meant. I do
now!

Double
gauzed means that the fabric consists of two different layers attached to each
other by means of small invisible stitches. It might seem difficult to stitch
with, the way I describe the fabric. Nothing is further from the truth, I did
not hamper me in any way, long life Japanese perfection.

Saturday, 16 February 2013

This week we
used the delightful Daisy Chain fabric
from Prints Charming again. I used
the orange/pink version before to make a schoolbag. This time around I used the
green/turquoise/grey version to furnish E her new white couch with two pillows.

One pillow is
finished with apple green piping and the other one with turquoise piping.

The
zipper is invisibly incorporated in one of the seams.

I made the
pillows when I had no access to the internet, so I wasn't able to consult the worldwide web for assistance and had to figure everything out myself;
nevertheless this is a great tutorial for adding piping and this might be useful
to attach the zipper in a nice invisible way.

Wednesday, 13 February 2013

A whole week
we had no access to the internet! The construction workers who are building a
new house further down the street, snipped our cable in two, to provide internet
for the new house?!

No internet,
that means: more time to stitch. So we finally finished the reversible hoody, maybe
better called the jacket for Felix.

The pattern
is from Stof voorDurf-Het-Zelvers a
stylish dutch sewing book. We slightly changed the pattern; we made the hoody reversible and added a zipper. A jumper with a jacket is more convenient for
us, as the weather is never really cold, and the zipper makes it a light jumper.

One side of
the hoody is made from Liandlo fabric, bought at KitschyCoo. The other side is
a kind of cotton knit fabric in red and white. I bought this fabric at Bengali
Market in Ajman for a ridiculous 1.2 euro per meter.

The backside
of the fabric is very nice, so we used the backside as the visual part for this
hoody.

I am pretty
happy with the result although it was supposed to look slightly different. First
of all, I planned to use yellow knit cuff fabric, but I accidently cut red
trimming. I only realized when it was largely too late.

Secondly, the
hoody was sewn together a couple of weeks ago but I could not find a
reversible zipper. A reversible hoody without a reversible zipper can no
longer be called a reversible hoody, so I kept on searching and found one
reversible zipper; a blue one –I actually wanted a red zipper. Luckily the blue
matches well with the red side of the hoody.

Lastly
something else most be wrong with the hoody; because as soon as my son saw me walk
towards him with the hoody, he ran away crying out loud. He kept on crying and
running away from the camera until we took the hoody off. More snot and tears
all over the pictures than anything else.

Therefore we
asked Felix his sister for help, she is not that much bigger than our little
man so the hoody fits her as well.

Also Jade was
not really in to pose for the camera, but she was easily blackmailed with the
promise of some chocolate in exchange for her nicest smile.

So the
initial I-do-not-want-to-pose-face …

was followed
by the toothpaste smile …

the spontaneous
smile …

the passport
photo pose …

and also a
picture where she clearly spells the word cho-co-laaaa!

I hope we
face a good summer in Belgium, otherwise we risk Felix runs around crying the whole
summer.

Saturday, 2 February 2013

Our blogpost
today is dedicated to OMA (my mother, and so the grandmother of our kids).

Happy birthday
oma! I know that since early this morning you are expecting a phone call from
your expat daughter. I know that by now you think I most have forgotten that it
is the 2nd of February today –just like I did the last 10 years or
so. I also know that your eldest granddaughter called you today, to congratulate
you, because I was standing next to her –although she kept that hidden from
you.

I kept you in
suspense the whole day, but this year I did not forget your birthday! A present
has been shipped to you, but it will not arrive in Belgium on time, so you can
unwrap it here digitally.

Behind the scenes

Curl Up is established by a mother of five, who lives in the Middle East. She attempts to combine her passions for rugby and sewing, with cooking, motherhood, Mr Curl Up and his artificial grass.
Mrs Curl Up is a perfectionist to the letter who has to be reminded on a regularly basis that the view halfway to the top of the mountain might already be stunning.